Crystal Water
by Cheery Wolf
Summary: AU! Because of an accident at four-years of age, Sakura's life will be turned upside down by a mysterious killer whale. (S+S! No reference to wolves! He He...You'll know what I'm talking about when you read the first chap. R/R!! ^_^)


Disclaimer- I... Don't...Own...It...!!!  
  
~* Notes: Nadeshiko is alive in here. And this is AU. ~*  
  
C.W.: THIRD fic!!!! I'm sooo happy!!  
  
Kero: Is it about me being the champ in everything?!!  
  
C.W.: *sighs * Not even close!  
  
Kero: Damn!  
  
C.W.: Anyway... enjoy!  
  
  
  
  
  
Crystal Water  
  
By Cherry Wolf (a.k.a. C.W.)  
  
Chapter 1: Stormy Night  
  
  
  
"Daddy! Mommy! Look! Big black fish!" Four year-old Sakura Kinomoto cried happily. She was clinging to the metal side rails of the small cruise ship she and her family were traveling on. Her parents decided, since she was old enough, to take her to see places outside of usual Tomodea. Just before she entered kindergarten. Now they were touring with other tourists from different parts of the world sightseeing around the large islands of the east of Japan.  
  
Just behind their energized little daughter, Nadeshiko and Fujitaka Kinomoto smiled after seeing what the little girl was referring as 'Big black fish'.  
  
Nadeshiko knelt beside the girl, "Those are Orcas honey."  
  
Sakura looked at her mother puzzled, "...Or...ckys...?"  
  
Her mother smiled even more, "O-r-c-a-s... but you also know them as whales."  
  
"Hoe... but they're black! I thought whales were color blue!"  
  
Eleven year-old Touya Kinomoto teased, "Maybe they're like that because lots of lightning bolts hit them and burned them!"  
  
"HOE!!"  
  
"Touya! You're scaring her!" His mother scolded.  
  
"Aww...Mooom!"  
  
"No buts mister!" So began the battle between mother and son.  
  
Fujitaka walked over Sakura.  
  
"Only Orcas are that color dear." Her father answered.  
  
That confused the poor girl even more. Shaking her head she looked around and saw lots of people happy, enjoying themselves and taking pictures at the group of killer whales. The little girl smiled at the pretty sight.  
  
~*~  
  
But inside the captain's control room there it was different story. One of the navigators was nervously watching the sonar screen on the controls.  
  
"Captain!"  
  
The captain, a medium-sized man in his early forties, ran over to the navigator.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Sir, we have to turn back!"  
  
The captain frowned, "And why is that?"  
  
"There's a storm just 15 minutes away, and is almost on top of us!" The navigator cried out.  
  
"What!!! Why wasn't I informed of this earlier?!"  
  
"I would have, but it came out of nowhere just moments ago on the scanner!"  
  
Without any thought, the captain made a grab for the intercom microphone and turned it on.  
  
~*~  
  
"What did you do with Touya?" Fujitaka asked his wife. Both were sitting on a small bank on backside of the ship, watching Sakura play with a pink ball with other children her age.  
  
Nadeshiko smiled, laying her head on her husband's shoulder, "I took him back to the cabin after our little discussion. He started complaining and I quote, 'It's not fair!'  
  
Her husband chuckled, "Yeah."  
  
Nadeshiko was about to say something when she heard the announcement, "May I have your attention, to all passengers. Just moments ago our navigation systems located a storm of high proportions. Please, to all passengers on deck, step to your respective cabins. We'll keep you all informed. That is all."  
  
Just as it finished, the people on deck rapidly entered the doors that lead to the cabins. Even in the commotion, Fujitaka manage to grab Sakura, but doing so making her drop her ball in surprise.  
  
'My ball!' The little girl thought as she was taken to the family cabin.  
  
~*~  
  
Exactly as the navigator said, the storm struck 15 minutes later. The whole ship swayed side to side, making the people in their cabins grabbed the nearest thing to them. In her cabin, Sakura was thinking about her lost ball. She wanted to get it back. It was her favorite, too. Looking across the cabin, she saw her brother sleeping on the bed, and her parents looking outside the windows.  
  
"There goes our vacation..." Her mother sighed sadly. Her father nodded beside her.  
  
Seeing them occupied, Sakura quietly open the door and stepped outside to the hallway. Looking both ways, the little girl climbed the stairs, ducked the guards and succeeded on going out without being noticed. The wind and rain hit her very hard, but she kept her ground.  
  
'Where is it?" She thought. Sakura ran to the back deck and found her ball surprisingly hanging on the edge. Away from the metals hand rails. Fighting the wind and getting soaked to the bone, the little girl leaned over, trying to reach it. Unnoticed by her, were a pair of eyes, watching her from the raging waters below.  
  
~*~  
  
Looking at her clock, that read 11:30, Nadeshiko turned away from the window and started, "Sakura is time for..." But she trailed of when she saw that Sakura wasn't in the cabin. She thought at first that Sakura was in the small bathroom, but that thought disappeared and was replaced by panic when saw the door to the hallway slightly open. She ran over to her husband, who fell asleep on the bed beside Touya's.  
  
"Fujitaka, wake up! Hurry!"  
  
Her husband woke with a sleepy face, "Wha... "  
  
Nadeshiko didn't waste a second, "Sakura's not here, I think she went to the deck to look for her ball, the one she dropped earlier!"  
  
That woke Fujitaka completely, "WHAT!?"  
  
Without saying anything more Nadeshiko exited the cabin. Fujitaka behind her. Poor Touya still sleeping, oblivious of what was happening.  
  
They arrived at the deck doors, where a couple of guards stopped them, "Hey, what are you doing outside your cabin!"  
  
Nadeshiko was crying, "My daughter's out there, you got to let us out!"  
  
This shocked the guards, "What?!"  
  
Both parents nodded and without any thought, they ran outside with the guards right behind them. Moments later, they couldn't find Sakura. Nadeshiko was about to give up when she saw Sakura leaning over the rails, reaching what it looked like her pink ball. The girl was almost over the edge.  
  
"SAKURA!" The cry startled her husband and the guards. They came running, just in time to see Sakura being swept away by a strong gust of wind, throwing her overboard. Fujitaka ran over to the side and looked around at the waters below. He couldn't see her. Behind him, the guards were trying to console a shocked and hysterical Nadeshiko. She thought they lost their daughter, so she ran into her husband's arms. The guards looked sadly at them.  
  
In their turmoil, they didn't hear a couple of song-like sounds and then a small splash.  
  
Suddenly, several minutes later, with his wife crying in his arms, Fujitaka heard a small thump! to his right and saw Sakura's pink ball bouncing directly at one of the guards, who caught it.  
  
Then they heard a sound that was very familiar. Out of nowhere a black mass had jumped from the water, with something hanging from its mouth. It collided with the deck's metal floor, giving a painful cry. The storm had passed a bit, but it was still raining. One of the guards turned the deck lights on so they could see what had jumped on board. What they saw shocked them.  
  
The black mass was a beautiful, small Killer Whale or Orca, and the 'something on its mouth' was Sakura's soaked and shivering figure, who the Orca laid down carefully on the floor.  
  
Nadeshiko was the first one to snap out of the shocked state. She ran over to her daughter, went to her knees and cradled her in her arms. Fujitaka came with a big beach towel one of the guards gave him. They wrapped it around the little girl. Seeing her secure, Fujitaka looked at the whale, "Whoever you are, you have our greatest gratitude." He pet it, but when he heard a anguished cry coming from it and one of the guards yell out, "Holy... its hurt!" Fujitaka and Nadeshiko stood up and ran to the right side of the whale. It had a large, deep cut starting from its dorsal fin and finishing at the tail fin. The pained cries had awoken the entire ship, making the passengers and crew step up to the deck. Gasps were heard and the captain's voice shouted, "What the heck's happening... Oh my Lord!" He finished when he saw the scene. Touya right behind him, "Whoa... "  
  
He barked at the nearest of the two guards, "You there, I want every detail NOW!!" Nervously, the guard told the story to the captain.  
  
And as he did, Fujitaka, with his doctor expertise and Touya's help, manage to stop the bleeding with several towels for the moment. Several guards were blocking the other passengers for security measures. Nadeshiko was stroking the whale's rostrum to keep it calm and Sakura, now awake, was supported with her other arm. The little girl was coughing and sniffling from a forming cold, but most of all, she was crying very hard. The Orca had injured itself while jumping to the deck to save her. Nobody knew why it did that.  
  
"Mo- mo...mmy... is the... orckie... al- alright... " Sakura managed to say before she started coughing. Her mother shushed her quietly, "Save your strength Sakura... Fujitaka?" She questioned, seeing her husband and son walking over. He sighed, "I done what I can for it but it needs to be taken to an aquarium, so it can be treated properly."  
  
Nadeshiko looked at him, "Does that mean we have to take it out of its habitat?"  
  
He nodded. Nadeshiko shook her head, "But we're taking its freedom away and... " Fujitaka cut her off, "Honey, its for the best."  
  
She couldn't say anything and nodded, understanding. But she kept stoking the whale.  
  
In the last days of the trip, the storm had disappeared. The deck was off limits to passengers, except for Sakura's family. Sakura was still very sick and the Orca's condition got worse because of the sun. So some volunteers along with Fujitaka, placed soaked sheets on it to keep it cool. Those days were very hard for the passengers and crewmembers, taking care of it.  
  
Finally on the third day, the ship arrived at the Tokyo International Port. The port was filled with people, residents, tourist, etc. A news crew was also waiting patiently with a Kyoto Inter. Aquarium truck.  
  
As soon as all of the ship's passengers came out, the aquarium workers entered the ship. They tended the whale's wound and wrapped a support net around it, being careful of its pectoral flippers.  
  
~*~  
  
Outside, in her father's arms, Sakura watched as the truck crane transferred the injured killer whale to the back of the truck. The news crew was interviewing the captain about what happened during the ordeal, since they sent an emergency call to the port's main control center about the situation.  
  
Sakura couldn't talk much because of the half cold/hypothermia she had. When the small whale was settled and secured on the truck, she thought, that because of the cold and the sun's strong light, she was seeing things. But when the Orca looked at her, she could have sworn that its eyes changed from ivory black to a beautiful golden color...  
  
She shook her head. Her parents and brother didn't notice because they were thanking the lead worker and the ship's captain.  
  
"Take care of it." Fujitaka said to the worker. The worker nodded, "Sure will." With that they took of to Kyoto Inter. Aquarium. Moments later, they said goodbye to the crew and went to collect their luggage. Touya practically dragged part of the luggage.  
  
Grabbing her travel bags she asked something to Fujitaka that has been on everyone's minds for the last three days, "Fujitaka... ?"  
  
He looked at her, "Yes, dear?"  
  
"Why did it do that?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
Sadness passed across her eyes, "The whale."  
  
Her husband just said, looking at his sleeping daughter, "Honestly, I don't know. But be thankful for its valiant sacrifice."  
  
She nodded and with that thought, they entered their family van at the port's parking site and went on their way home, thinking this incident will be behind them. As for Sakura, who was sleeping on the back seat of the van, it won't be the last time she encounters the killer whale. In time she'll forget about it.  
  
Because little did she know that the answer to everyone's question, 'Why did it do it?' will be answered much, much later.  
  
  
  
~*~TBC~*~  
  
  
  
C.W: I had this idea for weeks. But don't worry I'm still working on my other fics.  
  
Kero: I want pudding!  
  
C.W.: No.  
  
Kero: Why?!?!  
  
C.W.: Remember what happened last time...  
  
Kero: O.O;;;;  
  
C.W.: Right... Also R/R!!! (Be nice!!! *puppy dog eyes*) 


End file.
